Second General Letter of Këph כֵּף ב Chapter 1 1.
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From: - To: ¶ Shim`ówn Këph, bondman and delegate of Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed, to those, who by lot were determined of equal value to us to obtain the persuasion unto justification of our mighty Ones and Deliverer, Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed: How to get favor and peace Favor and peace be multiplied unto you by the acknowledgement of Yâ-hwéh, even of Yâhuwshúa` our Sovereign! Why? 1
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Since the Power (’Ël), His Force, has given to us all things which are for life and piety, through the acknowledgment of Him Who called us for the sake of honor and manly valor, Through which [acknowledgement] He has given to us the greatest and precious promises, in order that through these ye may become sharers of the nature of the Power (’Ël), as we have escaped from the corruption that is within the world by desiring what is forbidden. The primary essentials to secure your calling and election: But also for this reason, when ye have contributed to it all diligent earnestness, supplement unto your persuasion moral valor, and to moral valor add knowledge,
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Yet unto knowledge, add continence, and unto continence, add perseverance, and unto perseverance, add reverence, Yet unto reverence, add brotherly love, and unto brotherly love, add affectionate love. For if these things are become yours and abounding, they will be neither idle nor unfruitful, to establish you permanently for the acknowledgement of our Sovereign Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed! For one to whom these things are not present, he is blind, shortsighted, having forgotten the purification of his earlier sins. Due to which, the more so, brothers, be diligently earnest to make your calling and selection sure, for when ye do these things, in no wise shall ye stumble at any time. 3
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For thus richly shall be supplied to you the entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Sovereign and Deliverer, Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed! Reason Këph is writing Which is why I will not neglect to gently remind you about these, though you indeed do acknowledge and are established within the Truth presently! But I deem it righteous, as long as I am in this çukkâ´h (tabernacle), to fully wake you up with a gentle reminder, Discerning that the laying aside of my çukkâ´h (tabernacle) is imminent, just as also our Sovereign Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed made clear to me. But I also will endeavor always for you to possess these things after my departure, to remember to perform them.
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Evidence: (1) Eyewitnesses of the Father’s testimonials: the immersion and the transfiguration For it was not by having followed out cleverly-imagined fables that we made known to you the Force and advent of our Sovereign Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed, rather, it was by having been eyewitnesses of His Majesty! For He obtained esteem and honor from the Power (’Ël), [His] Father, when such a voice was brought within Him by [His (v.16)] magnificent Honor: “This One is My Son, the Chosen One [see note Luwqá’ 9: 35], in Whom I have found delight…” Even this was the voice we heard brought inside Him from heaven, when we were 5
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together with Him on the Mount of the Pureness1!
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(2) His scriptural predictions And we have even more sure the word of the predicators, to which ye do well to take heed, as to a Lamp shining in an gloomy place until when the Day should dawn, and the Luminary (Shémesh)2 which
Tradition, usually wrong, says the transfiguration happened on Mount Tabor. This verse makes it clear the transfiguration was on Mt. Tsiyyówn, the temple mount! 2 The Aramaic has here Shémesh, which means “luminary orb” also in `Ivríyth (Hebrew). Apparently great confusion has occurred over this and continues to, due to the misgivings of ancient translators. The Greek word for luminary orb is “Helios” which is derived from “Hëylë´l” which is found in Yshá`Yâhuw 14: 12 and refers to ha-Sâţâ´n, the king of Bâvél. Probably in order to avoid calling Yâ-hwéh “Helios”, they put “light-bearer” fwsforov which they thought to be a translation of “Hëylë´l”! In reality, light bearer would be a translation of “Mnowrâ´h”, a symbol of Yâhuwshúa` with His seven spirits, and “Hëylë´l” means one who foolishly displays himself (shines) boastfully. Then the translations repeated the error this way, believing uselessly that they should conform it to Disclosure 2: 28 and 22: 16 (star of the morning), saying “Morning Star”(NIV, ESV, NASB, ISV, GWT, BBE, Darby, Weymouth, WEB, YLT), “the Christ Morning Star” (NLT) or worse, “Day Star” (KJV, KJV 2000 Bible, American KJV, Douay-Rheims Bible), which is often used to translate “Hëylë´l” (NKJV’s “Isaiah”14:12). But we understand that this Luminary is one other than the foolish boaster, “Hëylë´l”, rather the One that is in Psalms 84: 11. 1
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is in your hearts should arise [Psalms 84: 113]; Recognizing this first: that every prediction of scripture does not happen of his [the predicator’s] own personal explanation, Because predicating was not brought by the human will at any time, rather, the pure men of Yâ-hwéh spoke when being carried by the spirit of the Pure One.
Chapter 2
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The Teachers of the Lie: (1) Doomed peddlers of death ¶ But there were also predicators of the Lie among the people then, as there also will be teachers of the Lie among you, who will stealthily bring in sects of
“Because Yâ-hwéh the mighty Ones is a Luminary (Shémesh) and a Shield, kindness and honor Yâ-hwéh bestows, He does not withhold goodness for the ones who walk in blamelessness.” 3
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extermination, even denying the Sovereign Who bought them, bringing upon themselves a swift extermination! And the many will follow their ways of extermination [MattithYâ´huw 7: 13] out, by whom The Way of the Truth will be reviled. And in greediness, with treacherous smooth-talk [Psalms 35: 64, YirmYâ´huw 23: 12, Dâ´niyyË´’l 11: 21, 34] they will make peddlers of you [YirmYâ´huw 6: 26]; for whom the ancient condemnation is not idle, and their extermination does not slumber, For if Yâ-hwéh did not spare the envoys that sinned, instead, having cast them to the deepest abyss, gave them over to chains of darkness, to be reserved for a judgment; [Chanówkh 10: 6-17]
Let their way become darkness and treacherous smooth-talk, with the Envoy of Yâhwéh pursuing them. 4
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And if Yâ-hwéh did not spare the ancient world (instead He preserved Nóach, one of eight people, a herald of justification [Yâshâ´r 5: 6-11]) when He brought in an inundation to the world of the irreverent, And if Yâ-hwéh condemned them with a devastation when He reduced the cities of Çthóm and `Amorâ´h to ashes, Yâ-hwéh has made these examples to those being about to live irreverently! (2) Remnant to be delivered from them Yet He rescued righteous Lówţ, oppressed by the shameless conduct of the unscrupulous; For through seeing and hearing their unlawful works, the righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous self day by day, 9
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So Yâ-hwéh knows to rescue the wellreverent out of trial, but to reserve the unjust to a Day of Judgment to be punished; (3) Their walk and talk But especially those who walk after the flesh in craving lust of contamination, and despise sovereign authority! Daring, selfpleasing hedonists, they do not tremble reviling dignitaries; Whereas envoys, being greater in strength and power, do not bring a slandering judgment against them before Yâ-hwéh! But these, as instinctual irrational animals born for capture and rot, by reviling what they are ignorant of, shall utterly perish within their rottenness,
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Being about to get the reward of unrighteousness! Esteeming as pleasure the daily indulgence, they are spots and blemishes luxuriating within their delusions as they do the Feast together with you; (4) Fraud for gain Possessing eyes of a sated adulteress, yet which do not cease from sin, alluring unestablished souls! Sons of doom5, who possess a heart well trained in fraud for gain! When they left the straight Way, they went astray, having followed in the way of Bil`â´m son of B`ówr who loved the reward of injustice,
Most likely Bnëy-Chë´rem in `Ivríyth (Hebrew), Chë´rem is sometimes translated curse, meaning a physical netting of a doomed object, extermination. This of course refers to the coming Judgment of His house, in which His opponents are exterminated. 5
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Yet he had reproof of his own wickedness, when the naturally mute beast of burden, speaking in a human voice, resisted the madness of the predicator! These are fountains without water, clouds being driven by a tempestuous wind [Proverbs 25: 146], for whom the gloom of darkness is reserved for ages for proclaiming overbearing words devoid of Truth; they allure by fleshly desires and by licentiousness those who indeed have escaped from those who are overturned by fraudulence, Promising them liberty, when they themselves are bondmen of corruption! For by whom anyone has been subdued, he is also held in bondage by him! For if, having escaped the defilements of the world by acknowledging our
Clouds and wind, yet there is no rain is a man boasting about the gift of the Lie.
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Sovereign and Deliverer Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed, but having been entangled, they are subdued by these again, the last state has become to them worse than the first! For nobler were it for them not to have acknowledged the Way of the justification, than after having acknowledged Him, to have turned back from the pure commandment delivered to them! But that of the true Proverb [26: 11] has happened to them: “As a dog returning onto his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” and, “A washed sow returns unto her rolling place in the mire.”
Chapter 3
His Day is coming 13
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1. ¶ Beloved, this now is a second letter I write to you in which I arouse your pure mind by reminding you 2. to be mindful of the words predicted by the pure predicators, and of the commandment of us the delegates of our Sovereign and Deliverer; 3. Recognizing this first, that on the final days scoffers shall come, walking according to their own private desires, 4. Even saying: “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue in this way from the start of creation!” 5. For this lies hidden from them – willingly so – that heavens were from old raised from water, and dry land from water [Genesis 1: 6-9], yet subsisting by means of water, by the Word of Yâ-hwéh, 14
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6. Through which Word, the world of then having been inundated with water, was exterminated! 7. But the heavens and the earth of now by the same Word are treasured up for fire, being withheld for a Day of Judgment and extermination7 of the irreverent humans! 8. But beloved, do not let this one thing lie hidden from you, that one day with Yâhwéh is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. 9. Yâ-hwéh does not delay the promise, as some declare a delay; rather, He is longsuffering towards us, not willing to exterminate any, instead for all to come to repentance. [Yshá`Yâhuw 30: 18] The Judgment is the fulfilling of the Law, “The wages of sin is death”: at the 6th seal for His house, and at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb for the unconverted heathen masses, which is the extermination of the irreverent humans, the first death. There will be no more flesh and blood humans after that. 7
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10. But the Day of Yâ-hwéh shall come as a thief by night, within which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and the hosts burning with heat shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it shall be burnt up! [Yshá`Yâhuw 13: 13, 51: 6] 11. Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what kind of persons ought ye to be in pure conduct and well-reverence, 12. Awaiting and eagerly anticipating the nearing of the Day of Yâ-hwéh, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the hosts burning with heat shall melt? 13. Nevertheless we expect a new heaven and earth, according to His promise, in which righteousness dwells permanently! 14. Which is why, beloved, expecting these things, hasten diligently to be found in 16
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peace8: without spot and unblameable to Him.
Proclaim salvation and study! 15. ¶ And consider ye the longsuffering of Yâ-hwéh to be salvation — just as also our beloved brother Páulus wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, 16. As also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, among which are some things hard to be understood, which the untaught and unestablished twist to pervert towards their own extermination; as they also do the other scriptures. 17. Therefore ye beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware! Lest having been led away with the fraud of the unscrupulous, ye should fall from your own stability! 88
Shâlówm also means reconciliation, completeness, besides peace, as this verse clarifies. 17
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18. But grow in favor and in the knowledge of our Sovereign and Deliverer Yâhuwshúa` the Anointed. For Him is the honor now and on the Day of the age! ’Âmë´n!
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